Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake, but I've noticed tld's playing a massive part in results now. I have a .com website ranking #3 at google.com and at google.co.uk - it's like 100th. However, I also have a .co.uk website at #5 for the same keyword which displays the same position for both .com and .co.uk Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a shift in this recently and what you are doing about it. It pisses me off because I don't know how many users go to google.co.uk as opposed to .com or click the "uk results only" button, so I've got no idea whether what people are doing. My initial conclusion is that UK websites should now be using .co.uk to get the most out of their SEO. Comments anyone? I should also add that this is making use of the keyword tracker almost impossible because results comletly change based on setting the tracker to use .com or .co.uk
Geotargetting has a large effect on the search results and this also makes using the tracker quite difficult. Ideally if you have a UK site you should be running the php script from your site rather than the DP server so you can take advantage of the limited geotargetting that the API results have. If you run it from Shawns servers you get results targetted to his location rather than yours. Make sure you host the site in the country you want to rank highly for and concentrate on building backlinks from sites located and hosted in this country as well.
I have found the same - also Uk. A domain which is .com lists less well when selecting 'pages from the UK' on google.co.uk.
I don't think it has to do with the TLD; rather the physical location of the server for geotargeting. I have a .com that has always been hosted in the UK and it does significantly better on all of the UK engines. Good advice from Mad4.
This is bad news for me. I host all of my websites in the US because hosting is so ridiculously expensive in the UK. ASmallOrange (www.asmallorange.com) has got to be one of the best, if not the best hosting places around. There is no way I'm changing so I'll just have to work soley on links and content. I'm still to be convinced that people in the UK use google.co.uk and not google.com or are you saying that regardless of what tld you use for Google, it will use geotargetting the user and take that into account when serving up results? Google is getting too bloody clever in my opinon.
Unless you change it, isn't the default behaviour of G to foward you to your local site? On a clean install of Firefox, if I hit Google.com, it forwards me to Google.ca automatically. You're right about it being a bit silly. These are the worldwide internets, right? I'm not sure why you should be expected to pay more to host in your home country.
I've noticed that Google sometimes tries to re-direct me to .co.uk, but haven't really paid any attention to it. I am one of those who use Google.co.uk when I want UK results and .com when I'm bothered. I hope Google is gonna thank me for all these inadvertant links I'm creating here!! M
If you host in the US then you are at a real disadvantage trying to rank for a search on google.co.uk
Yup. I've spent the morning doing analysis and it's true. I can't get onto the UK pages results with a site hosted in the US. I've got a .com which is hosted in UK which features in Uk version, and another .com hosted in the states. Both are #1 in google.com but the .com hosted in the states drops out of the results complelty for UK results. I can't believe i've been so stupid to overlook this. I D I OT I'm so ******* angry with myself. Can anyone suggest a UK host with sensible prices and good control panel access. I love ASmallOrange - they do a simple thing and do it well. I sound like a walking advert for them but that's the impression they've had on me. Gutted.